The Renters’ Rights Act took effect in England on 1 May 2026. The first platform data covering the new regime showed rents on new tenancies jumping in June, a signal worth watching rather than a settled trend.
Goodlord’s June index put annual new-let rent inflation in England at 6.5%, its highest reading in almost two years, while the official whole-market measure from the ONS put England at 3.4% over the same 12 months, since risen to 4.0% in the 12 months to August. The gap between those two numbers is the story, and it matters to anyone who owns or is buying tenanted property.
In short
- Goodlord’s June 2026 index put new-let rent inflation in England at 6.5%, its highest reading in almost two years.
- The ONS whole-market measure for England ran at 3.4% over the same 12 months, and 4.0% in the 12 months to August.
- Goodlord has not published July or August figures while it updates its methodology, so June remains one month of data.
- In-tenancy rent rises are now capped at once a year, via a Section 13 notice the tenant can challenge at tribunal.
- A landlord who fails to complete after using the selling ground cannot re-let for about sixteen months from service of the notice, on a four-month notice period.
New-let rents after the Act took effect
Goodlord’s Rental Index is built from tenancies processed through its platform, so it measures rents actually agreed on new lets rather than advertised asking prices. For June 2026 it recorded an average new-let rent in England of £1,309.
That is 6.5% higher than the same month last year and 8.1% higher than May. The index had recorded annual inflation of just 1.7% across April and May, so June is a sharp break, not a drift.
Caveat: Goodlord is a lettings platform with a commercial interest in the market it measures, and its index covers its own processed tenancies rather than the whole market.
The check comes from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which measures the whole rented stock including sitting tenants.
Its release of 22 July 2026 put average rent in England up 3.4% in the 12 months to June 2026, the same period as Goodlord’s figure, with the UK at 3.3%.
Its release of 16 September 2026, covering the 12 months to August, puts England at £1,459 and 4.0% and the UK at £1,400 and 3.8%.
| ONS private rent inflation | 12 months to June 2026 | 12 months to August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| England | 3.4% | 4.0% |
| Highest English region | North East, 6.3% | North East and North West, 5.8% |
| Lowest English region | London, 2.2% | South East, 3.0% |
These two measures are not in conflict. New lets are a small slice of the stock in any given month, so a spike in new-let pricing takes time to show up in the whole-market number.
What the pair tells you is where the pressure is: not on sitting tenants, but at the point a tenancy turns over.
Why new lets reprice under the Act
The mechanism is written into the Act. In-tenancy rent increases are now limited to one per year, served through a Section 13 notice that the tenant can challenge at tribunal.
Before 1 May, a landlord who underpriced a new tenancy could correct it within months. Now the opening rent has to carry the full year, and any correction waits twelve months and survives a possible tribunal reference.
Priced that way, a higher opening rent is not opportunism. It is the rational response to a rule that removed the ability to adjust later.
Goodlord was careful about how much June proves. Rents always strengthen over the summer, and this is one month of data from one platform. Its chief executive William Reeve said June may prove “a one-time recalibration of the market, or the beginning of a new normal”. Both readings are live.
The July and August figures that would have tested them have not appeared. Goodlord’s own release page now says its data team is updating the index methodology, with a new index due on 1 October 2026, so the next reading may not compare directly with June.
Advance rent and the selling ground
The Act also stops landlords and agents taking rent before a tenancy is entered into.
Sellers face their own new constraint. A landlord who uses the selling ground to recover possession and then fails to complete cannot re-let or market the property to let until twelve months after the date the notice named as the earliest for proceedings, which on a four-month notice is about sixteen months from service.
That changes the cost of a failed sale for any landlord exiting with tenants in place.
We covered the possession side of this in Possession After Section 21: Selling Runs Through Ground 1A.
What this means for property investors
If you hold tenanted stock, the repricing event is now the tenancy turnover, not the annual review. A sitting tenant paying below the new-let market is a known quantity under the Act: you can move the rent once a year by Section 13, and the tribunal is the ceiling. That makes the gap between passing rent and local new-let evidence the number to track on every unit you own.
If you are buying, the same gap is where the value sits, and where the mispricing risk sits too. A rent roll full of long-sitting tenants may be well below local new-let evidence, but the catch-up is slower and less certain than it was before 1 May.
Underwrite on the passing rent, treat the reversion as upside on turnover, and do not underwrite 6.5% as the new annual run rate.
One month of platform data does not set a trend, and the whole-market measure for England was 4.0% in the 12 months to August 2026. Our checklist for this is in Buying a Tenanted Property: The Handover Checklist, and the supply backdrop is in Rental Supply Fell While Enquiries per Property Halved.
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